Capturing the Beauty of Everyday Life in the Bronx

For two decades, students of the International Center of Photography at the Point have learned analog photography and documented their community.

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Photographs taken by students and alumni of the International Center of Photography at the Point, a partnership between the Point, a community group in Hunts Point, the Bronx, and the International Center of Photography.CreditTony Baizan

Inside the bright atrium at the Point, a middle-aged woman approached Lacy Austin. “Do you have photography classes?” she asked. “I heard you did.”

Do they ever.

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CreditMisra Walker

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CreditDanny R. Peralta

For two decades, hundreds of young people have learned analog photography through a partnership between the Point, a community group in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, and the International Center of Photography.This community, whose 6,000 residents live on a peninsula cut off from the rest of the borough by the Bruckner Expressway, has had its resilience tested by nature — like Hurricane Sandy — and man-made disasters like abandonment, crime and, now, gentrification.But the young photographers who have come up through this program — more than 2,000 so far — have devoted themselves to presenting a full, honest portrayal of their community.

“They make the ordinary extraordinary,” said Ms. Austin, who is I.C.P.’s director of community programs.“What you see in these pictures is the beauty of everyday life. They address the issues, their fears, dreams, life and humanity. There is the beauty of it, the power of everyday life is what you see. Not what we often are shown in mainstream media about what happens in our communities.”

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CreditFaith Colón

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CreditRoy Baizan

Hunts Point has been through the crucible. When classes first started, the area was devastated by drugs, violence, poor housing and empty lots. Much has changed since four local activists started the Point in the mid-1990s: new parks and housing have been built, while other institutions — like Rocking the Boat — have thrived. Now the area faces the same threat encountered by other communities whose residents endured decades of official indifference and neglect only to displaced by gentrification.

Yet sensationalist images of the bad old days persist among some parachuting photographers who — under the guise of impassioned concern for the marginalized — made garish images of drug users and prostitutes.That reductionist, distorted view is something participants in the program vehemently reject (even if those exploitative images earn plaudits among outsiders who are clueless about the community).

“It was enraging to see those pictures,” said Roy Baizan, who went from classes in Hunts Point to graduating this year from I.C.P.’s one-year documentary program. “They try to justify those images, but they can’t, especially not when the future of the community is at stake over how you photograph it. I spend time in the community, knowing the artists, educators and activists in Hunts Point. I’m thinking about how the community is represented and how having a camera can change those perspectives.”

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CreditMadison Forty-Way

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This is not to say that the young photographers of I.C.P. at the Point ignore the problems. Studying photography, writing, critical thinking and public speaking, they have been given the tools to put out an often-overlooked narrative of local life. Their themes reflect their concerns, from music and art to the environment and housing, and challenge viewers — if not demand from them — to see the area’s residents as real, complex characters in a functioning community.

In short, people in full.

“What this is about is seeing that trajectory from beginning as a student to believing your voice has value,” Ms. Austin said. “That your stories are important and deserve to be told and amplified is really what this is about.”